I'm Movin' On
by Wingleader Sora Jade
Summary: Everyone sees Ken as the twelve-year-old angsty ex-empoer. He wants them to see him as Ken, just Ken. He has to leave, even if it means leaving everything, and everyone, he cares about behind.


I'm Movin' On  
by WSJ  
  
This song has been haunting me for the last few days, literally begging me to write this fic. A bit of chorus would rise in my memory, only to disappear again. *sighs* It's very frustrating... Except now, I finaly have all the lyrics! Yeah!!!!  
  
I don't own Digimon and the song belongs to Rascal Flatts.  
  
()()()()()  
  
16-year-old Ken Ichijouji bit his lip as he pulled another shirt out of his drawer and stuffed it into his navy blue duffle bag, trying not to recall his earlier conversation with Wormmon.  
  
The small green Digimon had walked in on him when he was packing, which he was only now getting around to finishing. He had looked baffled for a moment, especially when Ken told him where he was going to be living from now on.  
  
"Ken, why do I have to go stay at Miyako's?"  
  
"Because she loves you and I know she'll take care of you."  
  
"You're leaving?"  
  
At this point Ken had stopped packing and turned to stare out the balcony doors at the hot noon sun. "Yes Wormmon, and you can't tell anyone! I'm sending them each private e-mails before I go and leaving a note for my parents. They won't know I'm gone till I am."  
  
"But, but Ken-chan why? It isn't something I've done is it?" Wormmon had gotten teary-eyed, and Ken had to restain himself from bending down to pick him up.  
  
"No Wormmon."  
  
"Then why? Why are you running away?"  
  
Ken flinched at the words. "It's nothing... No, it's everything! I've finally faced myself, and, well, maybe not quite forgiven myself for what I've done, but everyone else still sees me as the twelve-year-old angsty ex-emporer. They don't see me as me."  
  
"But Miyako does."  
  
"That's why Miyako's the one who's going to take care of you until I have enough courage to return."  
  
"Taichi does courage."  
  
"But I'm not Tai..."  
  
*I've dealt with my ghosts and I've faced all my demons*  
*Finally content with a past I regret*  
  
Back in the present Ken sighed and gazed out the balcony doors toward the setting sun. He'd taken Wormmon over to Miyako's about an hour ago, and spent that hour talking with Miyako. She understood why he had to go, but she wasn't happy about it.  
  
She and Ken had both cried when Ken had risen to say good-bye, sharing their last, good-bye kiss. Their parting words would forever be frozen into his mind. He knew that.  
  
"Miyako, if I ever do come back, it'll be for you."  
  
"I know. I love you Ken-chan."  
  
"I love you too Miya-chan. Forever."  
  
Then he'd slipped off Sam's high-school ring, and slid it onto her finger. He'd worn it ever since he'd found it in a box in his mom's closet, just after the whole Emporer thing.  
  
"Consider it a promise." Ken had told her.  
  
He'd left then, leaving her in tears. She didn't know that he'd had tears on his face too. But this was something he just had to do. He had to prove to himself and the world that he wasn't just Sam Ichijouji's little brother. And he wasn't just 'that kid who tried to take over DigiWorld'. And he wasn't just 'Odiba's great genius'. He was just Ken.  
  
*I've found you find strength in your moments of weakness*  
*For once I'm at peace with myself*  
  
Ken moved toward his pillow and pulled one last thing out from under it. His D3. He dropped it into a side pocket on the duffle bag and made to zip it up when he spied something sitting on his desk.  
  
It was a picture, taken last Christmas. As a joke Daisuke had gotten him a pair of sunglasses and a little toy whip. No one knew that the look of horror the camera had caught was real, and not just for show.  
  
*I've been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long*  
*I'm movin' on*  
  
Pushing his ear to the door, Ken listened. Good, it sounded like both of his parents were in bed. Going over to his computer he quickly double-clicked the 'Send' button on his e-mail system, sending out e-mails to the rest of the DigiDestined telling them good-bye.  
  
He shouldered his bag and slipped out of his room. He left a note on the kitchen table, and then he was gone.  
  
When the elevator doors at the end of the hall opened, Ken nearly groaned aloud. It was Mrs Zela. That woman had no brains at all and even less tact. It showed.  
  
"Why Ken Ichijouji!" she squealed, welcoming him onto the elevator. "How's Odiba's greatest genius tonight? Do your parents know you're out this late?" Here she winked and elbowed him in the side. "Wouldn't want you to get hit by any cars, now would we? Or perhaps you're going to see that girlfriend of yours? Do your parents know?"  
  
She was starting to repeat herself, so Ken cut in. "I'm running away." he said bluntly.  
  
"Oh my dear boy, that's a good one!" Mrs Zela said, reaching over a fat had to pinch his cheek. "A good joke indeed."  
  
Ken was very glad when the elevator ground to a halt on the first floor and he could get off.  
  
*I've lived in this place and I know all the faces*  
*Each one is different, but they're always the same*  
  
"Yeesh..." he muttered as he crossed the lobby, reaching up to gingerly poke his aching cheek. "I thought honesty was supposed to pay off..."  
  
A voice from behind him caused him to jump. "Good evening Ken."  
  
Ken whirled around to see the night manager, Mr Dalat, behind the desk. "Donut?" he asked, offering Ken one of the round pastries sitting in a box on the desk top. "Oh, I forgot," he said before Ken could answer. "You don't eat sweets. Gotta keep up that trim figure for soccar. Not to mention the ladies." He winked.  
  
Ken sighed and turned to leave. "See ya around Mr Dalat." He didn't bother to explain that he loved donuts, or that he hadn't played soccar in two years, or that he had a girlfriend.  
  
"Bye Ken!"  
  
*They mean me no harm but it's time that I faced it*  
*They'll never allow me to change*  
  
Outside in the parking lot Ken easily found his bright red Lambragini. Daisuke, Hikari, Takeru, Iori and Miyako had pitched in to buy it for him. Ken and the others had been planning to buy one for Miyako, since she turned sixteen before any of them, but her parents had bought her a car.  
  
And so they'd used the money they'd saved up, turned around and surprised Ken, who was only about three months younger then Miyako, with this sweet little red machine. Ken really didn't consider himself vain about his car, like Taichi and Yamato were about their respective Mustangs, but he really did love it. He'd even begun to affectionatly call it the Kaiser.  
  
He stopped with his hand on the driver's side door handle and glanced back up at the appartment building, almost every window and balcony dark. He couldn't stop another tear from slipping out of his eye.  
  
Dispite all its corny people, annoying ladies and run-down appearance, this was home. And he was going to miss it. But this wasn't where he belonged any more.  
  
*But I never dreamed that home would end up where I don't belong*  
*I'm movin' on*  
  
Ken wasn't sure where he was going, and after awhile he found himself pointed towards Kyoto. So he just shrugged and turned on the radio, rolling down the window and letting the warm summer air in.  
  
He chuckled at some humerous song about leaving your wife to go fishing, and then his stomach caught up with his car.  
  
He pulled over at a diner conveniently placed along the road-side and stepped in for a bite to eat.  
  
"What'll you have?" asked the waitress once he was seated.  
  
"Um... Hamburger with the works sounds good." Ken said, handing her the menu and flashing a thankful smile. By the time his food came he had struck up a lively conversation with a truck-driver who was on his way through about, of all things, the Digimon.  
  
"Yup," the trucker, Malcolm, said. "My daughter's got one. She's a bona-fied DigiDestined."  
  
"Huh," Ken wondered outload after admitting partership to Wormmon. "I wonder why we never met her..."  
  
"Oh that's easy," Malcolm said. "My family lives in the US. I'm just over here for a trucker's conference, if you can believe that."  
  
"I though your accent sounded strange." Ken admitted.  
  
They shared a laugh and Ken suddenly realised something. Here he was, in a broken-down old diner, talking to a trucker who was the father of an American DigiDestined, it was one in the morning and he was most possibly crazy, but he was having a great time.  
  
*I'm movin' on*  
*At last I can see*  
*Life has been patiently waiting for me*  
*And I know there's no guarantees, but I'm not alone*  
  
When he reached Kyoto two days later he knew that he was a) going to have to find somewhere to stay, and b) find some way of making some money, which meant a job.  
  
As he was cruising around Kyoto he saw a small bundle of rags on a street corner, holding up a sign that said "Homles. Plese help."  
  
He himself about two days away from being homeless if he didn't find somewhere with a low rent to stay, Ken drove on, but in his rear view mirror he thought he saw something, and slammed on his brakes, causing the car behind him to squeal around him, the driver tossing Ken the finger as he did.  
  
Ken shrugged it off and sprinted back down the street toward the homeless person. As he got closer, the person bending down and talking to him straitened up, turned and smiled at Ken, and vanished.  
  
Ken screeched to a stop next to the homeless man, frantically looking around for Sam. But... Wasn't Sam dead? Suddenly Ken smiled and bent down to help the frail-looking man back to his car.  
  
*There comes a time in everyone's life*  
*Where all you can see are the years passing by*  
*And I have made up my mind that those days are gone*  
  
Two years later Ken knew it was time to move on again. His Sam Ichijouji Shelter for the Homeless was well established. People were beginning to get to know him and recognise him. That was the sign it was time to go.  
  
He handed over the keys to his office and the password to his computer to Oscar, that very first homeless man he'd helped, and went back to his apartment. It was mostly empty, since he'd sold and/or given away almost everything he'd accumulated during the last twelve months.  
  
*I sold what I could and packed what I couldn't*  
*Stopped to fill up on my way out of town*  
*I've loved like I should but lived like I shouldn't*  
*I had to lose everything to find out*   
  
He packed up what little he had left and headed back to his car. That poor, faded Lambragini... Ken shook his head. The poor Kaiser had taken him through a lot. And it was gonna take him through more.  
  
He flung his last two bags into the back seat and started her up, smiling at the steady purr coming from under the hood.  
  
The eighteen-year-old stopped to think. "Now?" he asked himself aloud. Quickly he shook his head.  
  
*Maybe forgiveness will find me somewhere down this road*  
  
He couldn't go back to Tokyo yet.  
  
*I'm movin' on*  
  
()()()()()  
  
What do you think? I really like it. PLEEEEEEASE review!!!!! This is my 101st fic! Please? 


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